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Ohio's Aid to Fugitive Slaves as a Contributing Cause of the Civil War

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OHIO'S AID TO FUGITIVE SLAVES
AS A CONTRIBUTING CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR
By
W. H. Siebert
Some thirty years ago as a young Instructor in the
State University I had classes in American History, and
when we got to the movements leading to the Civil ^ar we
took up as a subject for special study and investigation
the unlawful and hidden activities of the Abolitionists and
many other humanitarians In helping fugitive slaves to
gain their freedom by routes leading from one antl-slavery
home, or neighborhood, to another. In the course of several
years I accumulated a large mass of fragmentary information
by correspondence and travel. The next step was to classify
the collected material by states and counties and piece together the fragments of information. By this process it became possible to trace on a map of the Northern states a
large part of the system of routes over which fugitives were
forwarded by their friends. In the years before the Civil
War this system was called the Underground Railroad.
Another step was necessary if the historic significance
of the Underground movement was to be determined, and this
was to study it in relation to slavery and the Fugitive Slave
clauses of the Constitution and the Ordinance of 1787 and the
federal laws providing for the rendition of fugitives from

OHIO'S AID TO FUGITIVE SLAVES
AS A CONTRIBUTING CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR
By
W. H. Siebert
Some thirty years ago as a young Instructor in the
State University I had classes in American History, and
when we got to the movements leading to the Civil ^ar we
took up as a subject for special study and investigation
the unlawful and hidden activities of the Abolitionists and
many other humanitarians In helping fugitive slaves to
gain their freedom by routes leading from one antl-slavery
home, or neighborhood, to another. In the course of several
years I accumulated a large mass of fragmentary information
by correspondence and travel. The next step was to classify
the collected material by states and counties and piece together the fragments of information. By this process it became possible to trace on a map of the Northern states a
large part of the system of routes over which fugitives were
forwarded by their friends. In the years before the Civil
War this system was called the Underground Railroad.
Another step was necessary if the historic significance
of the Underground movement was to be determined, and this
was to study it in relation to slavery and the Fugitive Slave
clauses of the Constitution and the Ordinance of 1787 and the
federal laws providing for the rendition of fugitives from